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Book Signing with Ally Carter and Rachel Hawkins

So, I was lucky enough to attend two amazing signings recently. Check out this post to read about my experience at the NYC Teen Author Festival Signing!

The first was last month with Ally Carter and Rachel Hawkins. These two women are not only awesome, but more hilarious in person than then they are in their writing--and if you've read novels by either of them, you'll know they're pretty darn funny! I would have thrown this post up sooner, but I was waiting to see if I could post the audio I recorded here with the post for those of you unable to get to the tour, and then I went and deleted my video featuring all the signed lovelies, and only just filmed it again this week!

The first thing Ally and Rachel did upon arrival was tell us an epic story of how they got lost coming from Washington, DC, because they knew their signing was in Pennsylvania, so they got off in Philadelphia...even though their station stop was in New Jersey because the store they were going to was closer to the border than it was to Philly. If you're in the suburbs skirting the city, it doesn't matter if it takes 45 minutes to actually get to the city...we're still considered Philadelphia because it's easier for non-native folks to find where we live. So it's an honest mistake! I get weird looks all the time when I'm in NYC and said I went into NJ to get the train. People just don't understand how close to the State border this area is...all they hear is Philly, lol!

Then, the ladies did an extensive Q&A with the audience. I was really excited that neither read from their books, because this late in the game, things are really spoilery, and I'm sure the audience was full of first-timers! Plus, at the time, I hadn't read either new book, and I hate being spoiled even when I'm caught up!! I have since read OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF TIME, which I still need to review, but I've been waiting to savor SPELL BOUND. I want to re-read the first two books before moving on to the third, and with Fairy Tale Fortnight looming and all the tour books I had last month, I just haven't had the time to dedicate to a trilogy!

During the Q&A, Ally mentioned that TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is her all-time favorite book. There were two girls near me wearing Gallagher Girl shirts who started whispering and gagging, which I thought was super-rude. Just because you had to read a book in school doesn't make it horrible! Think about all the schools that have been doing THE HUNGER GAMES and helping to make it popular over the last few years! I hope that Ally's revelation makes them re-read this amazing book and appreciate it at some point in their lives. It was definitely one of the best school books I ever read! Rachel's favorite books are THE GAME OF THRONES, MATILDA, and THE PERILOUS GARD (I'd never heard of this one!). Plus, I got to ask both ladies a question regarding my current WIP, as well as talk to them in the line.

Awesome Pens!!!

And the line! We were lucky to be sitting in the second row! The store didn't think there'd be a huge turn-out (How did they NOT know how big of a following these two ladies have!?), so they didn't give out bands and just went in row order. Thank goodness we got there early! Rachel Hawkins was especially awesome in line. I commented on the way her pens matched the cover for each book (-->), and she told me that she originally thought it was a great idea after finding them, but soon realized it was a hassle when she actually had to juggle from pen to pen! Love her!

Jenna from Shortie Says wrote up a recap featuring a lot of the Q&A that you can read here, since this is getting long now! Plus, pictures! She has more pictures for you! :)

Comments

Lovely post! I unfortunately missing Rachel when she came to Mass.. I had to work late but I had a friend who worked at the little book store get me signed copies of Spell Bound and Demonglass. Glad you had fun!!!

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